Why I love Parafilm M and why Bishops Scientific is now marketing this product in India.

Most of you who have ever worked in a laboratory setting need no introduction to Parafilm M - the most ubiquitous and amazing product in any laboratory.

Parafilm M is a unique self-sealing, mouldable and flexible film for numerous uses in the typical laboratory – whether it is a chemical lab, a pharmaceutical lab or

diagnostic/biomedical lab.

Parafilm M has unique permeability properties, impressive water vapor transport properties, and is resistant to many common reagents. Another novel characteristic of Parafilm is the ease with which one can make a “dead fold”. And as if this is not enough, Parafilm can be stretched 3 ½ times its original length before breaking.

Parafilm is ideal for a range of applications in the lab and beyond and this includes:

• Creating a physical barrier and seal over samples – keeping your work safe from contamination.

• Sealing of containers in a huge variety of shapes and sizes including flasks, dishes, tubes and more.

• Using to overwrap stoppers to ensure they are held securely in place.

• Protecting containers with lids from moisture during storage.

Parafilm will prevent moisture and volume loss but it is also permeable to oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapour. Therefore it allows for off-gassing without compromising the sample integrity.

Many colleagues have reported Parafilm being used to seal off cell cultures, hold fluids in

high-temperature fittings, and make sure NMR tubes stay closed at 360 rpm. Some people

even reported using Parafilm to seal wine and whiskey bottles. There is also a special

version of Parafilm used for grafting trees. Parafilm® Agricultural tape is also used for crown

wrapping film on organically produced bananas to eliminate use of post-harvest fungicides. I

would welcome the readers to contribute any other uses of this miracle product in the

comments.

It is interesting to note the designs of the Parafilm box and logo apparently haven’t changed

for the last 80 years of so. Why? Because they don’t really need to focus on marketing, it’s

used in pretty much every research lab in the entire world.

In the last few months, we talked to many lab technicians and scientists and realized that

they were looking for an affordable steady supply of Parafilm M and decided to help out by

distributing this product in India. We now sell Parafilm M directly on our webstore:

www.labfriend.co.in and enter into rate contracts with bigger labs for guaranteed supply

and pricing.

Thank you everyone for reading this blog, until next time, Happy Sealing!